


Relax

by MountainRose



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Massage, warms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 23:02:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21187430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MountainRose/pseuds/MountainRose
Summary: Tony comes home tired and stiff after a long day,





	Relax

**Author's Note:**

> this is from a while ago on tumblr, if it looks familiar, that'll be why ;)

Tony joined Steve at the mildly bizzare hour of ten in the evening and Steve put his book down in alarm.  
  
When he flopped, face down, on his side of the bed, Tony hadn't even taken his shoes off. The crisp lines of his suit had crumpled so badly that the creases had creases.  
  
"Hey honey. You okay?"  
  
"I need to... Burn China."  
  
"Permission denied, what happened?"  
  
Tony groaned into the duvet and ejected his glasses from under his face with two fingers. They clattered to the floor beside the bed. "The hydroplant. Won't let my contractors work. Insisting on using their own. Gonna have to put everything back six months to train them up."  
  
Steve hummed in sympathy and stroked down Tony's back. The fabric was bunched up and rumpled carelessly but despite Tony's commitment to his flop, the muscles in his back were hard as iron.  
  
"You did it then, completed the negotiations."  
  
Tony nodded and some tension did go, leaving him sinking a little deeper into the bed, but not really enough.  
  
"Come on, up you get. Shower. JARVIS, heat it up for us."  
  
Tony roused and accepted a kiss before making his way to the ensuite with a single minded focus that had him half way out of his suit before he even reached the door. Steve smiled helplessly and picked up after him. The suit went straight in the dry clean laundry though; there was no saving it without special equipment.  
  
Leaning on the bathroom doorway, he watched Tony shampoo in silence. He looked sore, his movements minimalist and stiff with exhaustion. The steam finally reached Steve, puffing into the cooler air of the bedroom, so he closed the door and retreated to their closet.  
  
"J, do we still have that massage oil warmer?"  
  
JARVIS swung a cupboard open, low down on the back wall of the closet. The steel egg-shaped warmer was just visible when Steve crouched down to peer inside.  
  
"Perfect. Thanks buddy."  
  
By the time Tony reappeared in a cloud of humid air, Steve had turned down the bed and spread a spare sheet over the fitted ones, thick cotton incase he spilled the oil again. Tony's face did a predictably complicated series of expressions:  
First, curiosity, then a stutter of tiredness and regret, followed by a well-meaning but self-sacrificing fake leer.  
  
It had taken Steve literal years to get the hang of Tony's microexpressions, but the eidetic memory had won in the end.  
  
"I'd like to give you a massage, Tony. Get your head out of the gutter."  
  
Tony made a more genuine hedonistic sound and wavered toward the bed. Steve met him at the edge and reeled him in. They slotted together effortlessly, and Steve closed his eyes in appreciation of all that shower-hot skin. He slid his palms down Tony's back and relieved him of his towel with a gentle flick.  
  
"On the bed face down, honey. Let me get rid of some of this tension."  
  
Tony shuddered, hopefully in a good way, and slid out of the loose hug.  
  
Once he was situated, pillows all punched and wrestled into place how Tony wanted them, Steve put the towel away and fetched the warm oil.  
  
He straddled Tony's butt, without putting any weight actually on him, and poured sweet smelling oil into the graceful sweep of his spine.  
  
Tony sighed in appreciation. "You're a genius, Steve. Love you."  
  
Steve leant down and kissed the back of his neck. "Love you too. Feel free to go to sleep."  
  
"But--"  
  
Steve huffed into his hair and nuzzled him quiet. "Nuh-uh, Tony. Just do what feels nicest. Don't resist."  
  
"You are very sexy when you do that voice, you are not helping your case."  
  
Steve sat back up and swiped his hands through the oil. "Naps are sexy, you know."  
  
Tony lifted his head slightly, and Steve let him long enough to mumble: "There's a kink for that."  
  
Steve pushed his head back down with a long swipe of oily fingers up the tendons of the back of his neck. Tony grunted and went limp. "There's a kink for everyone and everything. I'm not surprised."  
  
Tony grunted and stretched under Steve's hands. "Wholesome kinkster."  
  
"You bet. Shhhh."  
  
Tony's skin was so warm and flushed from the shower that Steve's hands slid over it like silk, the oil soaking in and making him glow. He smoothed from the dip of his back all the way up to shoulder blades and back again, slow and smooth.  
  
The muscles underneath were hard, particularly up and down on either side of Tony's lower back, so Steve just leaned gently into them and swept back up and down, gradually, slowly, warming up the stiffness, letting Tony breathe out and let go. He couldn't find any specific knots, but the tension was leaking out of Tony anyway, so he settled into a steady, inexorable rhythm.  
  
He pushed Tony firmly into the bed the whole time, keeping him pinned by whatever part of his body he was working on. The long slide up lats and over shoulder blades wrung a groan out of Tony, so he did it again, slow and steady.  
  
Eventually, he felt Tony snuffle his way to sleep, and gentled the massage until he was just stroking warmth into the muscles.  
  
Tired himself, now, Steve didn't bother tidying up. He left the oil on the bedside table and slid in beside Tony, pulling the covers up and curling as close as he could without waking him.  
  
  



End file.
